Protective covering for preexisting affixed medical equipment safety straps

ABSTRACT

A disposable cover used to protect preexisting affixed safety straps on medical equipment. The cover includes: 2 protective panels and hoop and loop fasteners on the inside for securing the cover to the preexisting affixed strap and hook and loop fasteners on the outer surface to allow the cover to secure to the opposing cover. This disposable protective cover is slipped over the preexisting affixed safety straps that are attached to the medical equipment prior to being used to secure a patients&#39; body/limb to the medical equipment for a procedure, allowing the strap to be protected from infectious fluids.

The present application is a continuation in part of the U.S. non-utility patent application Ser. No. 14/200,413 dated Mar. 7, 2014 entitled: Protective covering for medical equipment safety straps, which will become abandoned May 7, 2017 and continuation of the U.S. non-utility patent application Ser. No. 13/573,175 dated Aug. 24, 2012 entitled: Protective covering for medical equipment safety straps, which will become abandoned Mar. 9, 2014 and a continuation of the U.S. non-utility patent application Ser. No. 13/485,833 dated May 31, 2012 entitled: Protective covering for medical equipment safety straps, which since has been abandoned, which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application No. 61/620,311 dated Apr. 4, 2012 entitled: Protective covering for medical equipment safety straps each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 2005/0108825 A1, filed May 2005; U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 2005/0284488 A1, filed December 2005; U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 2008/0039755 A1, filed February 2008; and U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 2010/0236287 A1; U.S provisional patent application Ser. No. 2012/0324631 A1; U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,586 A, issued June 1985; U.S Pat. No. 4,575,874, issued March 1985; U.S Pat. No. 5,048,542, issued September 1991; U.S Pat. No. 5,263,496, issued November 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,009 A, issued May 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,244 A, issued April 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 6,282,725 B1, issued September 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,637,429 B2, issued October 2003; U.S. Pat. No. 6,936,018 B2, issued August 2005, the subject matter of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not Applicable

THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND

Preexisting affixed safety straps on medical equipment and/or procedural tables are used in a variety of medical settings i.e. CT scan tables, MRI tables, Cardiac Cath Lab tables and GI procedure tables. Medical personnel must use straps to secure patients/limbs to the table so that the patient does not fall off and incur further injury. Although effective, one commonly over looked risk is the multiple uses of these preexisting affixed safety straps after being contaminated with communicable diseases by infected patients. Currently these straps are not being disinfected and/or cleaned regularly due to the time constraints, even when there is a clear contamination of infectious fluids. This increases the patients risk of being exposed to other infections not related to their current stay, and could possibly become detrimental to the patients health if the patients immune system is compromised. Health Care-Associated Infections (HAI) increase a facilities outward cost. Approximately 2 million patients each year in the United States alone are affected by HAI's. This staggering number results in an estimated 90,000 deaths and an estimated $4.5-$5.7 billion dollars per year in additional health related costs to facilities for extended health care and/or death related lawsuits. Although it is nearly impossible to pinpoint where an infection origin's derived from, it is the facilities duty/responsibility to ensure that the patient environment is a clean and contaminate free to the best of their ability.

SUMMARY

The present invention addresses the problem of transmission of infectious contaminates from person to person when the preexisting affixed medical safety straps are used. Preexisting affixed medical safety straps are used hundreds of times a day but not regularly cleaned which can have an adverse effect if the patient comes into contact with the infected fluid. Medical personal attempt to disinfect the preexisting affixed safety straps by using an anti-microbial cleaner and/or laundering when they believe the straps have been contaminated. This takes up valuable time and is not always effective. An embodiment of the invention is a protective covering made of flexible impermeable material with a series of hook-and-loop fasteners. This is a preferred method of limiting the introduction of infectious fluids or skin contact with preexisting affixed safety straps.

An embodiment of the invention is a method of protecting a patient from HAI's by reducing the exposure to possible contaminates previously left behind on infected preexisting affixed medical safety straps while maintaining the integrity (security) of the safety strap.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an inside open view of the cover to show hook-and-loop placement.

FIG. 2 depicts an inside open view of the cover to show hook-and-loop placement.

FIG. 3 depicts an outside open view of the cover to show the placement of the loop side fastener.

FIG. 4 depicts an outside open view of the cover to show the placement of the hook side fastener.

FIG. 5 depicts the assembly of the cover whereby two sides are sealed.

FIG. 6 depicts the assembly of the cover whereby two sides are sealed.

FIG. 7 depicts the outside view of finished safety strap cover.

FIG. 8 depicts the outside view of finished safety strap cover.

FIG. 9 depicts the inside view of the cover to display the placements of the hook-and-loop fasteners.

FIG. 10 depicts the relationship of the inside hook-and-loop fasteners to the hook-and-loop fasteners of the outside of the cover.

FIG. 11 depicts the relationship of the inside hook-and-loop fasteners to the hook-and-loop fasteners of the outside of the cover.

FIG. 12 depicts how the protective covers are placed onto the preexisting affixed safety straps.

DRAWING REFERENCE NUMBERS

20 Protective cover

21 a Loop fastener (outside cover)

21 b Loop fastener (inside open end)

22 a Hook fastener (outside cover)

22 b Hook fastener (inside open end)

23 Open end

24 Sealed edges

25 Procedure Table

26 Procedure Table preexisting affixed safety strap

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One embodiment of the protective cover is illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 inside view. The protective cover is the open view of the cover 20 with the placement of the inside hook-and-loop fasteners 21 b and 22 b. The protective cover consists of any material impermeable to fluids the preferred embodiment of the material is plastic. The protective cover 20 can be cut into various sizes to accommodate the varies sizes of the preexisting affixed safety straps. At the open end 23 of the protective cover the hook-and-loop fasteners 21 b and 22 b are placed for fastening opposed edge portions of the safety strap. The other three sides will be closed 24 to seal the protective cover.

FIGS. 3 and 4 depicts a view of the outside of the protective cover. This view depicts the outside embodiment of the protective cover 20 and placement of hook-and-loop fasteners 21 a and 22 a before the ends are sealed 24.

FIG. 5 depicts the inside embodiment of the protective cover in the process of being sealed 24 to depict what will be the inside of the protective cover. The hook-and-loop fasteners 21 b and 22 b of the inside will adhere to the preexisting affixed safety straps.

FIG. 6 depicts the outside embodiment of the protective cover in the process of being sealed 24 to depict what will be the outside of the protective cover with the hook or loop fastener 22 a which will allow the protective covers to fasten to each other. It also depicts the placement of the inside hook-and-loop fastener 21 b in accordance to the placement of the outside hook-and-loop fastener 22 a before the protective cover is sealed on three sides 24.

FIGS. 7 and 8 depicts the outside embodiment of each protective cover once the three sides 24 are sealed. It shows the placement of the hook and loop fasteners 21 a and 22 a on the outside embodiment of the protective covers and how they intend to adhere to one another.

FIG. 9 depicts to embodiment of an open view of the protective cover after being sealed 24 displaying the placement of the inside hook-and-loop fasteners 21 b and 22 b in accordance with the placement to the open end 23.

FIGS. 10 and 11 depicts a finished set of protective covers with the placement of the hook-and-loop fasteners 21 b and 22 b in the inside of the open end 23 that will adhere to the preexisting affixed safety strap, as well as on the hook-and-loop fasteners 21 a and 22 a on the outside that will adhere to adjacent protective cover.

FIG. 12 depicts the protective covers and how they are placed onto to the preexisting affixed safety strap. Once the protective cover is slipped over the safety strap, the hook-and-loop fasteners on the protective cover 21 b fasten to the opposed hook-and-look fasteners 26 on the preexisting affixed safety strap which are attached to the medical table 25. Once the protective covers 20 are fastened into place using the hook-and-loop fasteners 21 b to the opposed preexisting affixed safety straps hook-and-loop fasteners 26 allowing the covered protected preexisting affixed safety straps to be wrapped around the patients' body/limb and securing the patient to the medical table 25. 

1. The invention claimed is a set of disposable protective covers for preexisting affixed medical table safety straps, that are used to secure bodies/limbs to medical tables and/or procedural tables, that are used to protect preexisting affixed safety straps from possible contamination by infectious fluids; the covers are quickly and easily secured to the preexisting affixed safety straps by hook and loop fasteners that adhered to the inside of the protective covers and are easily removed while maintaining the integrity (security) of the preexisting affixed safety straps, the set of disposable protective covers comprising: a length of disposable flexible impermeable material, and hook-and-loop fasteners on the inside panels and outer panels to allow the protective covers to adhere to the preexisting affixed safety strap and then to one another.
 2. The set of disposable protective covers in claim 1, wherein the covers are slipped over the preexisting affixed medical table safety strap and secured by the hook-and-loop fastener on the inside of the protective cover to the base of the preexisting affixed medical table safety strap and can be easily removed and replaced for the next use of the medical table.
 3. The set of disposable protective covers in claim 1, wherein the hook-and-loop fastener of the preexisting affixed medical table safety straps are attached to the inside of the disposable protective covers hook-and-loop fastener, and the hook-and loop fastener on the outer portion of the disposable protective cover is attached to the opposite adjacent protective cover to hold the body/limb securely to the medical table or procedural table.
 4. The set of disposable protective covers in claim 1, wherein the covers are flexible and impermeable to infectious fluids, thus eliminating the transfer of infectious fluids and cross contamination from the preexisting affixed medical table safety straps to the patient.
 5. The set of disposable protective covers in claim 1, wherein the covers are disposable and can be safely removed by the operator after each use, eliminating the contamination of the preexisting affixed medical table safety straps.
 6. A method of securing the disposable protective covers to the preexisting medical table safety strap comprising: a) providing a preexisting affixed medical table safety straps with a disposable protective cover comprising of a flexible impermeable material having hook-and-loop fastener on the inside edge thereof, and opposite hook-and-loop fastener on the outside edge of each individual disposable cover; b) providing a preexisting affixed medical table safety strap with hook-and-loop fasteners, the disposable protective cover is slipped over the preexisting affixed medical table safety strap and are secured by the hook-and-loop fasteners on the inside edge of the protective cover; c) providing the disposable protective cover is secured to the preexisting affixed medical table safety straps, the disposable protective cover is then able to be attached to the opposed disposable protective cover by joining the hook and loop fasteners on the outside of the opposed disposable protective cover and; d) once used, the disposable protective cover can be easily removed and discarded taking all the contaminates with the disposable protective cover. 